Pongal at Point Calimere - beachcombing with the camera

The sand at the saltpans

The beaches and saltpans of the region are a beachcombers' delight.  The sands were strewn with shells, and I was taken back maybe fifteen years, when the beaches of Thiruvanmyur would be like this!  Sadly, they are combed so heavily these days, that we only see small, broken shells.

On the beach sands, near the Chola lighthouse

I have not systematically looked at this whole class of snails, clams and molluscs and this trip was a first, as I looked to understand about these marine creatures.  They could be univalve or bivalve.

So, we all indulged in virtual beachcombing, photographing all the pretty, colourful, unusual, large shells that we saw.   I have tried to match my notes/names with the pictures I took - I hope I am correct, please do point out if I have wrongly identified.  (Errors, if any are mine and not Uttara's!)

The waters near the boat jetty

At the waterfront

Uttara's account, which started here, now continues:  

A dead starfish.
Wonder what they do with them?

...Then we headed further south to the boat jetty where we saw crabs and star fish left behind from the day’s catch. Later we headed further away from the fishing boats to a quieter spot where we just roamed about, picking shells of all kinds and pestering Preston uncle with questions about each one which he patiently answered. 

The puffer fish
Highly poisonous

Among the shells we found were the cockle, clam, scallop, horned, screw, murex, bonnet and olive shells. The other things we spotted were a dead puffer fish (and all puffed up too) and the mother of pearl of an oyster. That evening was extremely fun what with all the beach-combing and shell-picking.

A capiz/windowpane oyster buried in the sand.
Placuna placenta.  Some translucent varieties used to make windowpanes!  (Its a bivalve.)

From L to R - Sundial, Murex, angelwing, spotted tun

Bottom - screw shell.  Above - I dont know, but it was pretty.

Blistering Barnacles!  I learnt that these creatures are crustaceans,
and the creature kind of cements itself to the substrate, and since they live in shallow waters, they have a set of plates which cover the opening when the tide washes out.  (These are dead and so they are open)

More dead barnacles on a branch by the sea-shore.
To see how these creatures, who cannot move on their own, feed,
please click here.

Is this a razor clam shell?

The hermit

Someone found a hermit crab. It was a juvenile, a tiny red little thing in an over-sized, borrowed shell. When we held it up, it scrambled all over the palms of our hands and it took a lot to stop it from falling of. Finally we released it back into the water and watched it being thrown back and forth by the waves until it disappeared from sight.

At the saltpans

The notice that hung on the wall
at our guest house on
marine life that is protected.

(Uttara)


We walked among the very large and small pools of saltwater that had been brought in from the sea which came in from both the south and the east. The large pools of water were separated by man-made mounds of dry soil. While there were a lot of Prosopis juliflora growing around the mudflats (some black-winged stilts were spotted here), marking the boundary, few plants grow in the area itself save for the few small bushes that grew around the mounds. On one side of the mudflats there grew the pooarasam or Portia tree also called Indian tulip tree (Thespesia populnea) which can grow in difficult conditions like near salt water and the sea coast. The land was dry and bare and in places cracked. Though proximity to water resulted in wetter soil, the land still retained its parched appearance.

Colourful spiral horn shells - all over the bunds
surrounding the salt pans.

But looks can be deceiving. While in most places, especially the mounds, it was perfectly safe to walk around, some areas were very marshy and when the earth gives way under one’s feet, it is certainly not a most pleasant sensation for most. I say this from first-hand experience. 

Is this a banded tun shell?  "Tun" supposedly
means cask or wine jar.  Tuns are typical of tropical water
and feed on other small creatures.

L - Frog shell? Or is it a broken whelk?
R - Harp shell - notice the lovely vertical ridges,
reminiscent of the strings of a harp.  The
harp shell creatures have an interesting feature.  They drop a part of their foot when threatened by a crab.  As Mr Crab munches on the foot, our harp will encircle it from the rear, cover it with mucus and sand, and then consumes it!

TL - Paper fig.  Very light
TR - Moon sea shell?
Middle - Brown banded tun
Bottom - screw shell

I had to walk the rest of the way barefoot which wasn’t so bad except there were a shells everywhere embedded in the mud and they were very sharp. You see the sea had come into the saltpans/mudflats and left behind millions of shells firmly held by the earth. The saltpans were as good as the beach for shells. We saw whelk and cone shells among others and again Preston uncle explained about them. Again on the return some of us had to do the usual feet-scrubbing before we could return to the guesthouse.

Conus shell.  The creature inside this is venomous
and its sting is unpleasant, and shoots out on a proboscis
at the narrow tip of the cone.

L - I dont know/Forgot
R - vase shell.  Common on the eastern Indian coasts,
despite their small size, they are predatory!

A scallop bivalve, next to a very small spiral horn.
Very common on our beaches

When we returned, the light had faded from the sky. We gathered in the entrance lobby to begin talking about what had been done that day and what there was left and even some random stuff. Vikas, Vishwanath, Kedar and I mostly yelled at and fought with each other. Then began the daily list-making ritual with the usual “Order, order!” and “Disorder, disorder!”

By the boat jetty, on the last morning
(Me)

A crab eyeballs us, looking
quite angry!

The morning of our departure, Hemal, Raji and me took an early morning stroll down to the boat jetty.  As we neared the beach, we came across a rundown, abandoned petrol station!! Really!  I wonder if it was for the fishing boats?

The fishing village was a hive of activity.  Motorbikes and cars whizzed past us, and we wondered what the excitement was all about.  We arrived to see the auction in full swing - last evening's catch was being sold.  Fisherfolks on cell phones, deals being struck, profits made.  It reminded me of an article I read in The Economist long ago, of the positive effect of the cell phone on the fisherfolk of Kerala.  Maybe this was the reason for traders coming in by car, having heard of a good catch that morning?  We didn't find out.

R - A lovely Murex turnispina,
quite common for our waters

During our four day Pongal stay, we found that the price of fish and prawn rose significantly, almost from meal to meal.  There was some joking as to how local demand was raising the prices, but it turns out, that the number of fishermen willing to go out to sea through the festival drops off, and this results in supply dropping substantially.

Sting rays, at the bottom of a freezer box.
According to the poster in the guest house, this is a protected species.

Turbanidae?

We wandered around, as fishermen repaired their nets, emptied the morning catch, their wives busy cleaning out the ice boxes.  Seeing our cameras and binoculars, one woman wanted Raji to take a picture of her.  Now it has to be understood that my dear friend Raji wants as little to do on such trips other than stopping and staring, so she quickly got out of this duty by asking the woman jocularly whether she wanted to become a TV star.  the lady in question gave a disarming, paan-stained grin and went off.

We got talking to some young men who had just returned from the sea.  Kodiakarai is approximately 50-60 kms from the tip of Sri Lanka, and we are always reading in the papers about fishermen from either country being arrested by the opposite coast guards, for straying into their waters.

An octopus was in their catch.
Among the most intelligent of
invertebrates

Just that weekend, 13 fishermen from this very village had been freed.  One of the young men, more a boy actually, told us that he was one of those who had just returned!  He also proudly said that it was not the first time he had been taken in by the Sri Lankan Navy.  "They lock you up for a week, take all your money, and then send you back", he said in Tamil, with a shrug and a bit of a swagger.

As we wondered why they had to take these risks, one of the older fishermen remarked as to how the size of their catch is falling - there is just not enough fish, and how they need to go further and further.  Sounded familiar - Downeaster Alexa from Billy Joel.

I know there is a 47 day ban on fishing or a fishing holiday around Chennai/TN coast, but that seems to be not enough?  Sustainable fishing is the mantra of the government, but is it working on the ground?  I dont know.

I also found it sad to see "unwanted" fish just being brought in, in the nets, dead and of no use.
More beautiful univalves.

A lovely, abandoned sea fan

On our way back, we saw a cheerful and noisy bunch of rosy starlings in the undergrowth, and its amazing how their chatter can lift one's spirits.

As we got onto the southern most end of high street, we saw various other fellow MNS members sprinting, and so followed suit.  and this is what we saw!

No marine creature this - a retreating wild boar.

Some strange thing
we came across.  (Not the pen!)
That was Hemal's touch of
scientific observation.

Lets hope that we learn and understand about sustainable living, sooner rather than later.

Signing off with this absolutely fantabulous specimen of a Murex (?).
Photo by Mr Ramanan

Up next - Mangroves at Muthupet.

Pongal at Point Calimere - of beaches and lighthouses

Continued from Waders, where are thou?

The diversity of the landscape in the Point Calimere area added to our enjoyment. Mudflats, saltpans, beaches, lagoon and the scrub forest. The children in the group enjoyed the beaches the most, I think. It was interesting that even though we live in the coastal city of Chennai, we never tire of the beach. Young teenager Uttara, wrote up a detailed account of our trip, and here is the bit about the beaches.

Uttara's account:
(words in italics are interjections by me!)

....Finally the British lighthouse (the picture on the left, below)  came into clear view. The lighthouse, built in 1890, is not a very tall building. Except for the roof which is red, the whole lighthouse has been painted white. Around it is a wall which has signs like ‘Visitors not allowed’ fitted near the gate. Some distance from the lighthouse is the beach, which was our final destination before returning to the guesthouse.

The British lighhouse, closer to the Pt Cali beach

While nearing the beach, the ponds and water-bodies increased in size and number. Separating the grasslands from the beach was a sort of mound — an area of sand that rose fairly high — covered in thick vegetation consisting of thorny plants and plenty of Prosopis juliflora. But there was a cleared up space so people could go to the beach without getting cut and scratched all over. We spotted the state flower of Tamil Nadu, Gloriosa superba, near the clearing.

Gloriosa superba in bloom

The beach on the other side was very different from the Chennai beach. Firstly, the beach was dotted with a variety of shells, including several kinds that are hard to find in the beaches of Chennai. Secondly, there weren’t any waves crashing onto the beach. Further out at sea, you could see the breakers dashing against an invisible barrier: there was definitely a barrier of sand submerged in the sea somewhere there that was breaking the force of the water. 

Thirdly, there was some kind of sad, worn-down brick structure jutting out of the water in the calm regions that were behind the sand barrier. It was covered in barnacles around the base where it was in constant contact with the sea. It also had a thick layer of bright green moss, so thick and bright that from a distance it looked as though there was grass growing over the structure. Overall it was an unimpressive sight. That said and done, imagine my shock as I learnt that this was the great Chola lighthouse! I had imagined a better preserved structure but it was only later that I read somewhere that the lighthouse was wrecked in the 2004 tsunami. No amount of maintenance could probably fix the damage done. We waded upto the structure. Beneath the water, the structure extended sideways a bit more than expected. 

The remains of the Chola lighthouse

(It appears that the cyclone Thane had further damaged the ruined lighthouse, as we saw this bit on the sands, close to the standing structure.  It was amazing to think that these bricks were from the twelfth/thirteenth century!) 

At the beach, there was a watchtower from which you got an amazing view of the setting sun. From the direction of this spectacle, you could make out another difference between this beach and the one at Chennai — the beach was not facing the east, in fact it wasn’t even entirely facing the south either, but more south than east. On the other end of the beach (opposite the sunset) were bars of sand. Somewhere beyond were the tidal mudflats.

The shadow of the watchtower from where this picture was taken - looking east

Looking north - A sea of green with the Brit lighthouse sen in the distance.

Looking west from the watchtower, the bund of sand that separates the wetlands from the sea?  If you click on the picture, at 2 o'clock, you will see a spire - the new lighthouse at the Kodikarai boat jetty.

The Chola lighthouse ruins - forlorn and a far cry from the action in Ponniyin Selvan

East and zooming in on the tidal pools and the sandbank.

Looking back at the watchtower

Seaweed, washed up

Ravana's meesai, all poky and hostile, foiling attempts to get around to the eastern beach!

Back down, the rest of our time was spent playing in the water and with shells (there's a whole post about shells coming up next) where we collected different shells of different kinds and tried to outdo each other in our quest to find who could collect the most uncommon shells. This part of the trip was really relaxing what with the wind in our faces, the soothing sound of the waves and no birds waiting to be spotted.  (Uttara, there is not a single bird picture in this post!)

We went to the main lighthouse (near the boat jetty) which was a fairly tall building painted in red and white stripes. It is located at a walking distance from both the boat jetty and the guesthouse. This lighthouse has a flash pattern of 1 flash every 10 seconds. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed inside though the man in the guesthouse said visitors were allowed till 5 o’clock in the evening.


The sun had already set and the light was beginning to fade rapidly when we decide to call it a day and return to the guesthouse.

The new lighthouse, close to the boat jetty

Soon after we returned there was a scheduled power cut and the whole place turned pitch dark. Chandrasekar uncle asked us to bring our binoculars and come outside where he took us on a trip through the stars, showing us a nebula, a red giant and some star clusters. We came outside and there was the sky like a slate of darkness and sprinkled across this vast space were the tiny, twinkling lights that were emitted by the stars. A sight that is no longer seen in cities, the sky was imposing and awe-inspiring and pacifying all at once; the awesome sunset from that evening was no match for a peek into the cosmos. It was, in fact, with groans that I received the return of the power and the lights. Somehow, the sky seemed to lose some of its ‘overwhelmingness.’

So we went back inside, binoculars and all, where everyone was assembled for the day’s usual bird, mammal, reptile, insect, every-other-species-seen-that-day list-making event, where Vikas flourished his pen and waved about his little pad…and then screamed at everyone for not taking his work seriously.

Composting dairy - Compost at last?

Began in September 2011, and finally I harvested some compost!  I think I have the hang of it now, how wet it needs to be and how much to fuss over it, etc etc.

But I wonder if it has to break down further than this?  It has stayed at this level for the past few weeks, and I am wary of making it moist at this stage for fear of causing it to rot.

I've added it to my potted plants, and will keep an eye to see which ones flourish and which don't.  Fellow blogger, Anita Kumar, warned me that depending on what went into the compost, plants take to it differently.

So I have just put a bit in various pots and shall keep an eye on them.

My kambha comes from Daily Dump, and they put out this little educational video recently.

Pongal at Pt Calimere – where are all the little waders and the ducks, for that matter?

Continued from The ubiquitous Brahminy Kites

Point Calimere has been one of those places where, one is supposed to see waders, big and small, lots and lots of them.  I think I saw larger colonies of waders in Pallikaranai than I did in Point Calimere, this season.  So, what is wrong?

Could it be the after effects of Cyclone Thane, I wondered.  Seems to be a more deep-rooted problem.

It appears that the Great Vedaranyam Swamp is in need of treatment.

I came across a 2006 paper - The decline in wader populations along the east coast of India with special reference to Point Calimere, south-east India by S. Balachandran of Bombay Natural History Society,

The paper focuses on Chilika, Pt Calimere, Gulf of Mannar and Pulicat.  Here is an extract from the paper about Point Calimere:

The Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary (10°18’N, 79°51’E) is situated on a low promontory on the Coromandel Coast (southern Deccan Plateau) in the Bay of Bengal (Fig. 1). The adjoining Great Vedaranyam Swamp stretches parallel to the

Palk Strait for about 48 km, and is separated from it by a sandbank. Its north-south dimensions vary from about 10 km at its broadest in the east, to about 8 km in the central part and about 6 km in its western portion. Five freshwater channels connected to the Cauvery River empty into the swamp. There is a gradual slope from north to south. The total area is about 349 sq. km.

In about two-thirds of the swamp, the habitat varies seasonally. During the monsoon and periods of south-westerly winds, there is a continuous expanse of fresh, brackish or saline water extending to the northern tip of the swamp. At other times, the area of open water gradually dries up from north to south.  During the drying stage, there are exposed flats and shallow pools. The extreme eastern promontory of the swamp,

comprising Kodikkarai and Kodikkadu Reserve Forest, has been declared a wildlife sanctuary. This sanctuary, the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, supports both littoral and terrestrial life zones (Ali 1980, Manakadan 1992). It comprises 26 sq. km of tropical dry evergreen forest intermingled with scrub jungle and mangrove vegetation, and intersected by numerous tidal inlets and creeks. Exploitation of the Great Vedaranyam Swamp for salt extraction and other marine-based industries is fast growing.

Two private chemical firms have been operating in the leased swamp areas adjoining the wildlife sanctuary. The manufacture of salt involves three stages. Sea water is pumped into reservoirs and then condensed before it is finally allowed to flow into salt-pans, where the salt crystallizes. The reservoirs alter the ecosystem to some extent since they are, in the absence of tidal fluctuation, more or less stagnant. The composition of the littoral communities and microfauna is drastically altered under

such conditions. The condensers have a relatively high salinity and temperature which create an ecological barrier for most marine organisms from April to October. Only the monsoon makes this environment temporarily habitable for marine organisms.

Point Calimere and Great Vedaranyam Swamp are an important wintering and staging area for over 1 000 000 waders and other waterbirds, and are the only site that has been intermittently monitored by bird ringing studies for the last three

decades. The swamp is of great importance as a staging area for migrants on their way to and from Sri Lanka and other wintering grounds.

So, Pt Calimere is on the “South Asian Flyway” – the little chappies breed in the Arctic in the summer, and then fly all the way down for the winter.

Again quoting from the paper –

Most waders migrate to India during early autumn, mainly through the north and north-west. From here, some birds continue on south-west to wintering areas in Africa (as confirmed in the Ruff), while others move south-east to the east coast of India, as demonstrated by a Curlew Sandpiper that was ringed at Bharatpur (north-west India) and recovered in the same winter at Point Calimere (south-east India). A similar migratory divide between birds wintering in India and those wintering in south-west Asia and Africa may also occur in Kazakhstan, as most of the recoveries during autumn passage of birds ringed in India have been from Kazakhstan. The spring passage of waders along the east coast of India is relatively well known (Ali 1981, Balachandran 1998, Hussain 1991).

Now here is the alarming and worrying bit –

The decline in waterbird populations at Point Calimere is very conspicuous not only to ornithologists, but also to laymen in the area. Any local villager, especially anyone over 40 years of age, can recall the drastic changes that have occurred in the numbers of waders and other waterbirds in the Great Vedaranyam Swamp.

The disappearance of the fabulous clouds of waterbirds (waders, ducks, terns, flamingos, egrets) that passed through the villages on their way between feeding and roosting sites up until the late 1980s is a visible indicator of the decline. The appearance of large mounds of salt on the mudflats, which were once thronged

by thousands of waders, ducks and flamingos, is an indication of the habitat loss and degradation.

The ringing and census data from Point Calimere indicatethat there has been a decline of over 70% in certain species of waders since the 1980s.

The most affected species are the two Arctic-breeding Calidris sandpipers, Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper, which were formerly the most abundant winter visitors at Point Calimere. The reservoirs, inter-tidal zone and other brackish areas at Point

Calimere provided enormous feeding areas for these species, with numbers of Little Stint in the 1980s exceeding 200 000 and those of Curlew Sandpiper, 150 000. During the last four years, however, neither of these species has been recorded in numbers exceeding 25 000. It appears that these two species formerly benefited from the shallow water levels in the reservoirs which carried many littoral organisms (crustaceans, polychaetes) into the environment. The plentiful rains also helped to increase the productivity of these habitats during the wet season. The extension of salt-based industries, the diminishing rainfall and disturbances caused by fishermen have now altered these habitats.

Seshadri KS was there in November 2011 and witnessed how bird ringing is done, with Dr Bala.  He also saw a bar-tailed godwit, the long distance champion in the bird world.  I didn't but Keertana, one of the children in our group did!

2012.  For a first-timer like me, there was the awe-inspiring sight of the sky filled with ducks, captured so well by Rags, as also small groups of plovers performing their aerial ballet.

But for those who had visited even in the '80s, the salt pans and the swamps were bare.

The white dots in the distance were gulls and a few egrets.

These looked like little stints but were too far away.  Every now and then, they would take off in unison, and treat us to this lovely sight of a spontaneous, synchronised air show!

At the salt pans and pump house - 

Black-winged stilts - I think the only ones I saw. Supposedly found in large numbers in Calimere earlier.  Are they all stopping over at Pallikaranai, then?

Egrets in plenty

A mixed flock of little terns, brown-headed gulls and gull-billed terns

Empty expanses, with some pelicans sometimes

Brown-headed gulls were in abundance, flashing their wing "mirrors" at us!

Two of the gulls at the pump house.  They had a long conversation - mostly one squawked and the other listened, like a much-married couple.

The gull-billed terns were also in plenty, tirelessly fishing.

 There were several types of terns, including Caspian, we saw when we went to the beaches, but more of that later.

This ringed plover was busy on the edges of the salt pans.

A females sparrow looked curiously up at Sekar, at the pumphouse.

 We made several forays into the salt pans, enjoyed the wide open spaces and the strong winds which kind of dissipated the heat form the sun.  We would be out close to midday, only returning when we were summoned for lunch at Ramar's mess!

The children went squelching in the mud, and looked like they had indulged in mud-bath therapy at the end of it.  There were shells of a multitude of types that I had never seen, some beautiful butterflies and even dragonflies, but the waders were not that many, and ofcourse I did not see a flamingo.

We also walked the grasslands and the swamps.

A kestrel sat and stared at us - and then flew off in disgust.

This was the extent of birds in the swamp, a small flock here and there.

 There were a lot of wood sandpipers here

This was one large mixed flock we came across - egrets, spoonbills, painted storks, ibises and even a heron

As the heat rose, the painted storks took  to the air, and after a while we could see them, high up, riding the thermals, along with a whole bunch of pelicans.

The grasslands had bulbuls, pipits, starlings and babblers in plenty, and every now and then a kingfisher would swoop by.  Lapwings would call out as also francolins.  Its the wader migrants that seem to be of concern.

A rosy starling poses

I had a strong sense of disquiet on reading Dr Balachandran's paper.  Could it also be that there are issues causing falling numbers in their breeding grounds, in the north?  

As he recommends, a better understanding means studies across countries in the South Asian flyway.  And studies to understand the role of the salt industry and what measures are needed to mitigate their effect?


Up next, beaches and lighthouses

Pongal at Point Calimere - The ubiquitous Brahminy Kites

Continued from the feral horses.

Brahminy kite, with a fish in its mouth.

They were everywhere, on the trees, soaring above in the skies, over the water, in coconut trees, on electricity poles, by the fishermen's boats, and even on roof tops!

I have never in my life seen such a congregation of brahminy kites!

At the pumphouse

Again, with a prey - seems to be a lizard.

Mr Ramanan says:   "They are fearless when they steal fishes from the fishermen which was evident even when an auction of fishes took place among thirty odd people, they pierce the crowd fearlessly and take away the fishes. 


But they really failed when they chased a feeding young one of sunbird as it flew very close to one of the fence made out of thorny materials of a house. Whereas in the pumping house, which pumps sea water to the saltpan, the Brahminy Kites hovers and wait for as and when the river terns catch the fish which comes out of the salt water from the pump, it chases them and using its legs, hit them at the back so that the river tern drops the fish which can be easily taken away by them as it success rate of catching the fish compare to the river tern is less."

Mr Ramanan's photo - at the pump house, the marauders!

Photo by Mr Ramanan.

 Rags captured a brahminy kite flying at dusk, and another fabulous shot of the kite fishing.

Continued.  Next, Waders, where art thou?